1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of golf club bags and more specifically to an improved golf club bag having a unique cross-sectional shape and a unique golf club dividing member serving as the top thereof for providing a better balance of clubs in the bag and for assuring proper side-to-side distribution of the clubs.
2. Prior Art
The following U.S. Patents have been determined to be relevant to the present invention:
Calkins U.S. Pat. No. 2,114,870 PA0 Venmore U.S. Pat. No. 2,128,546 PA0 Vine U.S. Pat. No. 2,607,382 PA0 Kouke U.S. Pat. No. 2,781,027 PA0 Rader U.S. Pat. No. 4,332,283 PA0 Isabel U.S. Pat. No. 4,340,102 PA0 Gerber U.S. Pat. No. 4,779,725 PA0 Reimers U.S. Pat. No. 4,844,253 PA0 Stansbury U.S. Pat. No. 5,071,147 PA0 Yonnetti U.S. Pat. No. 5,094,345 PA0 Hickin U.S. Pat. No. 5,102,529 PA0 Antonious U.S. Pat. No. 5,103,974 PA0 Graziano Jr. U.S. Pat. No. 5,125,507
Of the foregoing patents, the following appear to be the most relevant:
U.S. Pat. No. 4,340,102 to Isabel is directed to a golf club bag with apertures to accommodate a set of inverted golf clubs that enables a proper and convenient balance and weight distribution to be achieved and maintained. The bag has a head, a one-piece molding with apertures to accommodate four woods, an elongated aperture with recesses for seven irons, circular apertures for wedges, circular aperture for a putter, and optional apertures for spare clubs, balls, or other items. These apertures and recesses retain the heads of the clubs so that balance and distribution are not disturbed under normal conditions.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,844,253 to Reimers is directed to a lightweight rigid golf bag with a plurality of webbings so the balance point and orientation of the bag while being carried can be adjusted. The bag also can be used with any type of golf cart. The bag has a rigid collar at the open end. The collar has a peripheral flange and cross members that form apertures for placing clubs in the bag in a separated fashion. The collar is angled to a peak so that the golfer may place the clubs in an orderly and separated fashion with some apertures for the longer clubs and others for the shorter clubs. The straps, support bands, and webbing are mounted high on the golf bag since most of the weight of the clubs are in the heads, so as to maintain proper balance.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,125,507 to Graziano Jr. is directed to a golf bag that has a molded mouth with an opening for placing each club in an ordered arrangement by the length of the shafts for a readily visible array that provides quick and easy selection of a club. The bag has a molded mouth of a blunt-nosed triangular shape with the club identifiers molded into the material. The mouth provides for two rows of irons with the longer woods interposed between the rows toward the base. The golf bag has a base or bottom portion and a pair of interior separator webs extending between the mouth and the bottom to maintain the club handles in lateral alignment.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,103,974 to Antonious is directed to several embodiments of a top divider golf club insert to be secured in the opening of the golf bag, as original equipment or as a replacement, providing a primary compartment that is adjustably movable relative to the other compartments for separating and protecting the clubs. The insert includes a plurality of compartments including a primary central compartment and radially disposed compartments formed by dividers. The primary compartment is formed by telescoping cylindrical tubes latched in position by a pin and notches. The central compartment can be adjusted to accommodate various sized clubs.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,332,283 to Rader is directed to a golf bag assembly for supporting and protecting a plurality of golf clubs and keeping them from bunching up and damaging each other. The golf bag includes a conventional cylindrical bag body with an upper end closed by a supporting and protective plate. The plate with a stepped cross-section configuration defines a plurality of plate portions and at different levels for clubs of various lengths. The plate member includes a plurality of club receiving apertures spaced laterally at a selected distance. Each aperture has a boss portion for frictional engagement with elongate golf club protective tubes. Clubs placed in this bag will be positioned and retained separate.
From the foregoing, it can be seen that there have been attempts in the prior art to design golf bags so that the clubs contained therein are distributed in a balanced manner to provide a stable center of gravity to minimize the difficulty in carrying the golf bag. Unfortunately, all such attempts appear to either require the golfer to always replace a golf club in precisely the proper receptacle in the bag or be too expensive to fabricate, requiring complex structures in order to facilitate such proper balancing and distribution of the clubs. Furthermore, some of the aforementioned prior art requires that golf clubs be of a particular shape or have a particularly shaped head in order to match curved, elongate apertures specifically designed to accommodate such shapes. Thus, golf bags of this nature are not sufficiently flexible to accommodate golf clubs of other shapes, such as a golf club putter with an unusually shaped putter head. Thus, there is still an ongoing need for a golf club bag which is adapted for receiving golf clubs in a manner which balances the distribution of the golf clubs to provide a stable center of gravity for the bag user, but without requiring expensive, complex golf club bag structures and without requiring the user to have a precisely shaped receptacle and location for each golf club which can be an inconvenience during a game of golf.